3 Clever Ways To Improve Your Marketing

I have found 3 clever ways to get more out of your marketing and I’m going to share them with you in this post so get comfy and read on…

Marketing gets more and more difficult as everyone is trying to find new and innovative ways of marketing their business. But sometimes, there’s no need to reinvent the wheel. Here’s 3 clever ways you can get more from your marketing without having to come up with the next best thing!

Make sure you are noticeable

It doesn’t matter how great your offer is or how much it change your customers lives if they never get to see it, and getting to see things online is becoming harder with the recent new algorithm changes and changes to SEO practices. So what can you do to get noticed?

If you think for a moment about the way you use social media what do you find out. You scroll through loads of content without either noticing what it is particularly and not stopping to have a closer look at 99% of the stuff shown in your feed.

You are no different from most other people in this respect. We all scroll through our feeds until we find something that catches our eye, or we see someone we recognise. This then is our first clue.

We need to make sure that what we are posting is eye-catching and that people know it is us who are posting it. That way they are more likely to stop and take a closer look. If they stop and look they might like or share or comment, and this is what will get you noticed by even more people.

The new algorithm changes to Facebook and Instagram mean that you posts are scored by their relevance to the audience you are trying to attract. Let me explain…

If you have 500 followers and you put out a post that gets 250 of your followers engaging with it and adding comments, loving it or sharing it, you will get a high relevance score because Facebook will see that it is something that a lot of your audience are engaging with. Why is this important?

A high relevance score will signal to Facebook to share the post with more of your followers as they seem to be enjoying it. It will also mean that other people who don’t currently follow you might get to see it too.

Here’s and example of what I mean and how that works.

I have a page with 10,000 followers…

I then put out 2 posts. Look at the reach they get…

As you can clearly see, a measly 27 and 24 people got to see these posts. 27 people out of 10,000, how is that even possible?

But then I created another page which has 37 followers…

I then put out 2 posts. Look at the reach they get…

I have reached 192 and 145 people with these posts – out of 37 followers. How is this possible?

To be honest, it’s really simple. It’s all about the algorithms. Facebook want its users to enjoy their experience and so they will only show your followers content from you if they think they would enjoy it, or be interested in it.

How do they know this? Well they look at posts that you have previously put out on the same theme to see whether they liked them or commented on them. They will also see what other similar posts they have engaged with across the platform.

How do you make yourself noticeable?

There are number of things you can do to get noticed. The most obvious one is to make sure you are using your logo, or the same image on every single post that you put out online. You need your audience to recognise it instantly.

Here are examples where we have used out logo to let our followers know it’s us

Our Facebook header Image

An example of a Facebook Post

Our Pinterest header Image

As you can see, our butterfly logo appears on everything we do. And as you can also see, on each and every pin we create, our logo is front and centre making it really easy for our followers to spot us. You will notice some of them in the pins in our header. Consistency is key to getting noticed online.

Another thing you can do is to use a template for your posts, or have posts that include your brand colours or images. For example: Lisa and I use images that demonstrate standing out from the crowd, such as the ones below.

By using similar visuals in your posts your audience will soon begin to recognise “your look” without you having to put the exact same image on everything (which would soon get boring).

Use your marketing to collect leads

Great, now that you are getting noticed you can start to get more from your marketing. You can use it to generate leads for your business or latest offer.

Many people miss out on the chance to use their social media sites or websites to generate leads but this is prime real estate and you should be making the most of it.

Think of something your customers would find valuable or useful. Offer it as a lead magnet (a way of capturing their email address). Being able to follow up with people who have shown a genuine interest in what you have to offer is key to getting more from your marketing.

A warm lead (someone who has expressed an interest in what you do or sell) is an extremely valuable commodity. You need to be able to start a conversation with these people so that you can fully understand their needs and demonstrate how your product or service could fulfill them.

For example, at The Honest Marketing Group, Lisa and I use a free 1-hour consultation as a lead magnet. We offer people the chance to talk to us about their business so that we can offer marketing solutions that would fully meet their marketing goals and budgets.

You can see how we use these here…

Our website call to action

Our Pinterest CTA in the profile blurb

Another way that you can collect leads, and that is totally automated, is to offer something downloadable as a lead magnet. This could be a money off coupon, a cheat sheet, a pdf or a spreadsheet. It doesn’t matter what it is as long as your customer would find it useful and valuable.

Here is an example of what we offer our clients as lead magnets. You are welcome to click on it and get the planners for yourself if you wish….

Once the lead clicks the submit button above they are added to our email list and then they get sent the planners to their inbox straight away. We also ask for permission to send other related emails and give them the option to unsubscribe if they don’t want to receive any further information. (This is now a legal requirement so make sure you do it).

For those who don’t unsubscribe, which tend to be most, we are then able to follow up with them on a regular basis. This could be once a week or once a month. This particular lead magnet we only follow up once a month – but with what?

We offer hints, tips, ideas, suggestions and tutorials on how to get more from social media marketing. Obviously this is what they are interest in as it was a social media planner lead magnet that caught their attention enough for them to enter their email address.

The point is, we can now start to build a relationship with these new leads by demonstrating our knowledge and expertise and showing them how they could be helped by our marketing agency.

These emails are non-salesy (that’s just not us) but they are of great value and offer the reader more up to date hints and tips and therefore they help to build that know, like and trust factor that every company needs with their potential customers.

Say the right thing to the right person

The third clever way to get more from your marketing is to make sure you are saying the right thing to the right person. Your message needs to resonate with those you are trying to sell to and offer them exactly what they are looking for.

For example; let’s say you are selling life coaching services. You know that men and women of all ages would benefit from your services and you can cover a multitude of sectors including relationship issues, lack of confidence, work-related problems etc.

Now let me introduce Julie and Satnam. They are both life-coaches and both cover all the things mentioned above. One is very successful and the other struggles to get clients. Which is which do you think? Have a look at their marketing messages below.

Julie: As a Life Coach I can help you with a multitude of problems ranging from relationship or work-related issues to problems caused by a lack of confidence. Give me a call today for a friendly and confidential consultation.

Satnam: Are you struggling with low confidence? Would you love to be more self-assertive and get more of what you want out of life? Don’t lose another day to self-doubt. Give me a call and let’s get started!!

Satnam is the more successful and here’s why…

He has become an expert in just one area. He targets a specific type of person (someone with low confidence issues) and appeals to them. He speaks to them in words they understand and that resonate with the reader. They can see themself in what he is saying and they are probably nodding away to the questions he poses in his marketing.

Julie is less successful and here’s why…

She is appealing to no one in particular. Her message is vague and doesn’t resonate with anyone in the same way that Satnams does. No one is nodding away and recognising themself because she is not targeting anyone or asking specific questions of them. She is not painting a picture in the same way that Satnam does.

Can you see the difference? If you want to get more out of your marketing you need to speak to a very specific group of people, or specialise in one particular area.

This doesn’t mean that you can’t sell your product or service to a large demographic of people, it just means that you need to target one specific group in each piece of marketing.

So, there you have it. 3 clever ways to get more out of your marketing without having to reinvent the wheel.

We hope you have enjoyed this post and got some ideas from it for your own marketing.

Don’t forget, we offer a free and no obligation 1-hour consultation where we can give you advice and guidance on your marketing to help your business stand out from the crowd. Just call us on 07736 396519 to book your appointment today.